Whilst I have heard of the Apple battery charger, it has recently come to my attention due to a staff request for one at work.
I have heard on the TWIT podcasts that the batteries included with the Apple battery charger are actually the same chemical make-up as the Sanyo Eneloop batteries. These batteries can retain 80 percent of their charged capacity and potentially last for up to 10 years of service life.
Whilst people could just go out and buy any rechargeable batteries I think it is good there is now an option for those who will only buy products branded with a fruity label.
Unusual statement by Apple on the White iPhone 4
White models of Apple’s new iPhone® 4 have proven more challenging to manufacture than expected, and as a result they will not be available until the second half of July. The availability of the more popular iPhone 4 black models is not affected.
As far as I am aware there isn’t a current official statement on the availability of the 4th generation iPhone in Australia. Phone carriers are all suggesting that it will be ‘coming soon’…
37signals has released an iPad app called Draft. It is quite simple in design but by not trying to do too much it actually seems quite handy for knocking out design sketches. The price of $9.99 feels like a bit of a stretch though.
Derek Powazek has posted some photos taken from his iPhone 4 on his blog. I’ve been quite happy with some of the photos I’ve taken with my iPhone 3G, so the improved camera is going to be very handy for me.
The iPhone 4 is the first decent mobile camera I’ve ever owned. I’m just stunned by the image quality.
Just look at the detail and clarity. I’ve owned digital cameras that took crappier photos.
And finally elgato sent me an email this morning regarding a limited time feature they have on offer for their eyeTV product. Obviously someone working in the company got sick of the Vuvuzela’s used during the FIFA World Cup and they have added a filter option to specifically remove the buzz from the horns.
A special edition of EyeTV 3.4 software is available during the 2010 FIFA World Cup that offers a new feature called the “Vuvuzela Filter”. This filter gives you the option to dampen the buzz of vuvuzela horns in the stadium during live TV broadcasts; it can be quickly switched on and off at any time during the game. To use the filter, control click to bring up the contextual menu in EyeTV.
Click here for a quick demonstration of the Vuvuzela Filter in action.
The Vuvuzela Filter is available in EyeTV for a limited time only, and will disappear with the next software update – after the 2010 FIFA World Cup is over.
I heard on macbreak weekly that if you use the USB kit with an ipad it will recognise & work with external audio devices such as headsets and USB soundcards for the purpose of recording audio. Not bad for a long battery audio recording device!
The iPhone 4.0 beta 4 SDK has been released to developers. It can’t be long now until the final version is released and then the next generation iPhone!
(Well obviously June at the WWDC)
I am in the process of undertaking a DIYPNP project for my 1991 MX5. This new kit is based on the Megasquirt II design and won’t work with the existing Megasquirt I baseline maps.
I may try to use the 1.8L MX5 DIYPNP maps but I plan to double check these settings against the known base settings for the 1990-1993 B6 engine.
| B6 (MSPNP) | BP (DIYPNP) | |
| Standard Constants | ||
| Required Fuel | 13.4ms | 13.0ms |
| Injector Opening Time | 1ms | 1ms |
| Battery Voltage Correction | 0.10ms/v | 0.20ms/v |
| PWM Current limit | 100% | 75% |
| PWM Time | 25.4ms | 25.6ms |
| Fast Idle Threshhold | 80.0F | 140F |
| Barometric Correction | ON | ON |
| Control Algorithm | Speed Density | Speed Density |
| Squirts per Engine Cycle | 2 | 2 |
| Injector Staging | Alternating | Alternating |
| Engine Stroke | 4-stroke | 4-stroke |
| Number of Cylinders | 4 | 4 |
| Number of Injectors | 4 | 4 |
| MAP type | 400kPa | 400kPa |
| Engine Type | Even fire | Even fire |
| EGO Control | ||
| EGO Sensor type | Narrow Band | |
| EGO Switch point | 0.510 | |
| Ignition Events | 72 | |
| Controller step size | 1% | |
| Controller authority | 5% | |
| Active above coolant temp | 160F | |
| Active above RPM | 1500RPM | |
| EGO Correction Counter | Ign Pulses | |
| Idle valve frequency | 62 | |
After the disappointment I received when Vista completely bombed on my aged but still functional Dell Inspiron 4100 (Pentium IIIm 1Ghz) I thought it had been pushed to the corner and I was only using it for testing new Linux distributions. Even that has recently become a chore as Gnome has become slick and fancy.
I am lending my old Dell to a computerless friend who is currently in need, and Linux was a bit daunting for them. I thought I’d try Windows 7 32bit as it seems to run just fine on my Intel Atom machine.
To be brief I’m stunned with the performance. A near flawless install (except for a XP networking driver I pulled from the Dell site). Sure it’s not the full aero experience but none-the-less a hugely impressive performance for a machine that is around 8 years old!
Whilst browsing through the Direct2Dell blog I saw that Microsoft has announced the release date for Windows 7.
This has been confirmed as a tweet from the Microsoft team and on their blog.
At work I seem to be getting a reputation of being a ‘Mac guy’ because I have decent OsX knowledge but in reality I like to have a go at all the current operating systems and I certainly like to explore technology.
I have had the Windows 7 RC1 running on a home machine for a while now and I am considering installing it on a netbook as I’ve heard it works quite well with the Atom processor.
Windows 7 already seems fairly polished with only the occasional driver issue presenting itself. Microsoft have managed to get 7 in better shape than Vista in a fairly short timeframe and I think this will be a successful launch for them despite the economic conditions.
If you haven’t already tried Windows 7 I recommend downloading it and giving it a chance.
Many years ago I would eagerly await the weekend to go for a dirtbike ride in the State forests around Coffs Harbour with my brother and friends. Thinking back we would often discuss the future and what we would be riding when petrol became scarce and new technologies had become available.
We had decided that electric motorcycles would be the future but thought it would be odd being propelled through the forest on a quietly humming steed.
That was going on ten years ago now, I haven’t had my TT600R for going on eight years now and I don’t even live in Coffs Harbour anymore. I happened across a youtube video of an Electric motorcross bike in use (ignore the hooliganism) and looking carefully at the video I saw a website address across the bike Quantya.com. Apparently our dream of the future is a reality and you can buy electric motorcross (and road registerable) motorbikes across the world – just not in Australia.
It seems like such an excellent idea to me and I can’t wait to see what electric vehicles the world has to offer in the near future.
I’ll finish up with a promotional video for the Quantya.
Hewlett Packard seems to have updated their HP Mini note to the new model HP Mini 1000.
Whilst the HP Mininote seemed to get rave reviews for an excellent typing keyboard and build quality, concerns were raised over the performance of the VIA processor that was apparently inferior to the Atom.
In the web advertisement that leapt up in front of me earlier it appears that this product has been revised with the new model using the Intel Atom 1.6 like it’s obvious competitor the MSI Wind. This new model also has the option of a 10″ screen in addition to the existing 8.9″ so with interest I was wondering if this machine would muscle out the MSI Wind with similar specs to match the formidable typing ability.
Unfortunately I can see a chink in the armour of this new machine even before reading further. Having access only to a smaller SSD drive or a 4200RPM hard drive it becomes obvious that the machine must be using the 1.8″ ipod-style drive as opposed to the 2.5″ standard laptop drive used in the Wind.
Obviously there is probably a battery performance reasoning behind using the smaller drive plus it would make heat and internal packaging much easier for the designers it does greatly limit opportunities for I/O performance and storage upgrading. Currently it’s not hard to put a 7200rpm drive in a Wind or even a 500GB 5400rpm drive if storage space is more important than speed.
I will be attempting to get my hands on a review Mini 1000 so I can do a side by side comparison vs the Wind and I will compare it to other similar models such as the Apple Macbook Air and Dell mini 9.
This is an increasingly full and competitive corner of the computer market. How far off are we from reaching full market saturation, or will people keep purchasing ever new models because of the low entry price?
I’ve been toying with the idea of writing some iPhone apps. I’ve downloaded the SDK and played around a bit but I haven’t really created anything all that interesting. I was browsing a friends blog earlier tonight and I saw that he had helped another friend with some artwork for their iPhone project. I must say I’m very proud that they got their iPhone development off the ground and that it has been a success on the iTunes app store. My best wishes for a successful future writing for the iPhone and I hope I get cracking on it soon. 
It could just be the circle of people I hang out in, but I have been absolutely stunned at the number of people I know who have an iPhone already. For a device that was released not all that long ago it’s a pretty amazing saturation.
0